Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-03-02
SOME SOCIAL QUERIES.

some important Queries i'm Relation To the
Social and Political Questions of the
Times.
Ii men, OF choice or necessity, will he
farmers, and other men by like choice or
necessity will be artizans and laborers,
does not society by its own laws divide
into these two classes?
Does society possess any method for pre-
venting this division, or for adjusting and
balancing the interests and conditions
which arise from such division?
Does society possess any power to adjust
and balance the differences which will
arise from the skill, industry and integrity
Of the farmer class itself, and will not some
be always adding or gaining something
from the common field of ownership Of the
real estate, and Others, by want Of thrift
be always losing?
In the artizan and labOring class will
not skill, industry and thrift be followed
by the like consequences rs in the agricul-
tural class?
If five hundred acres of land may be
taken ~ the average ownership OF farms IN
the older States, land this Is far above such
ownership and each owner may have an
average OF five children, will not this re-
uuire,' i'm one way or another, u division OF
this land among the five children? In the
first generation after this first ownership
the average of such ownership will be one
| hundred acres; in the following generation
twenty acres, and in the third generation
will be irc
| Some of these land owners, by thrift
and energy, may add to their possession,
but it will be at the expense and unthrii't
of Others, and these Others will be RENTED
to the artizan, labOring, or non-producing
class.
The subdivision OF the real estate may
he measurably prevented by the new gen
Grafton, with some aid from the parents or
| by its own enterprise seeking new homes
in the unsettled portions Of the country.
But this is only translerringthe law OF final
| division 4 few degrees To the west. 1t is
only temporary palliatiop while 1t is II
larger increase of competition with the old
hOmeSteadS.
But To give the plaiueSt deductions
which follow from this increase and west
cru diffusion Of population it creates the
natural necessity for large means of COM
muuicatiOn and of transfer Of the people
and products of the West to the East, and
even to the other parts of the world, and
so the carrier and commercial class of the
country is \ necessity.
But mankind must he clothed rs well rs
fed, and implements of hushandry and al
of the arts Ito say nothing of the luxury
and characterization of the households
must he manufactured by all the different
applications OF wealth, selected skill, ETH,
cient and regulated industry, are the ahSo
lutte necessity Of life, and the manulactur
ing class il a coordinate branch of all vel
ordered people.
In this brief statement of facts and prin
ciples we have started with the always IN
creaSing subdivisions OF the land. Will
few farmers, there were few artizans ant
laborers, few carriers and commercial men,
and few manufacturers. But there wer,
artiZans and labOrerS. They bore Ger
tain proportion 10 the other classes o
society. They were always IN demand
and there WAS hut little competition he
them. The old necessities of our republi,
invited all such from foreign cOuntrie:
TO come and make their homes amongst us
The large success of our prosperity In,
kept mp this stream OF migration, and tn,
natural increase of our own artiZanS anC
llaborers has swellcl this multitude unit
competition griuds them all alike, unit
the same law of population which Is divid
ing the lands of the country is ncreaSln!
the daily competition Of labor with itself
Upon the same principle, if there WAS Ont
such labOTer, i'm the first generation Their
would five, i'm the second twenty five, II
the third one hundred and twenty-five
and in the fourth six hundred and twenty
five. 1t may be said that some OF thes'
are females, and in no true sense Ol TIN
term are laboreTS, but they are nOn-pro
duccrs and great consumers, and al,
largely to the final difficulty of securin:
subsistence for the whole.
To ali those We must add the priests
preachers, educators, scholars lawyers
doctors, who are necessary to make up tn,
integral whole of society, none OF whom
can I've excluded, and all of whom must b,
provided for in any practical! or utOpiar
view OF effort 10 produce the RiHeRaiam
which each one of the classes wants To-
Itself
The tendency to produce what are ROt
the passing evils Of society has been from
causes which have been and are ut worE
in the Northern States of the Union. II
has been the open door of all the migra
tionS. Their sudden and immense in
crease of wealth has primarily come from
the late civil war, by the great avalanche
of paper credit by fraudulent contracts, by
handling the mighty masses OF revenue,
and from the production of the precious
metals. In all this there is great iaaatiOn
and but little actual, positive wealth, a:
gold, silver, and paper money are only
the changing representatives of actua
value-increasing prices and wages wher
they are plentiful, and reducing prices an'
wages when they are scarce. The tru'
land alternate source of wealth Is tn
Hand, in its tillage, pasturage and textile
products, and the miners and manuiae-